History of Pennsylvania volunteers, 1861-5; prepared in compliance with acts of the legislature, by Samuel P. Bates.

1862 OAMPAIGN IN SOUTH CAROLINA. 1059
heavy storm of rain to Legreeville, where it remained until -the O9h, when it
took steamer for James' Island, and landed eight miles from the city of Charleston. At this place, on the following day, a rebel force, three thousand strong,
was encountered. The command was posted in an old ditch, the embankment
-of which was thickly overgrown with brush. The enemy advanced through
the woods, with open column of companies, without skirmishers. Approaching to within a short distance of the line, a well directed fire from the ditch:caused the advance, led by the Forty-seventh Georgia, to stagger. Soon recoveringfrom: the confusion into which it was thrown by this fire, its com-!mander attempted to change front; but it received a terrific fire from Captami amilton's Battery, United States Artillery, and from the Seventy-sixth
Pennsylvania, which had come to the rescue, which caused it to retreat in confu-:ion towards Charleston. Ninety men, killed and wounded, of the Fortyseventh Georgia, were found upon the field. The loss of the Forty-fifth was
one man mortally wounded.
The regiment, under command of Major Kilbourne, participated in the engagement* of the 16th of June, but suffered no loss. It was engaged in picket
duiy, and in constructing field-works, until July 1st, when it returned with
the brigade to Hilton Head, and moving on the 11th to Elliott's plantation, five
miles distant, went into camp in a beautiful grove, near the shores of Port
Royal Bay. Here the four companies, under command of Lieutenant Colonel
Beaver, rejoined the regiment after a separation of seven months..i etu-rning to Hilton Head on the 18th, the regiment embarked on the
seamer Arago for Fortress Monroe, where it arrived on the 21st, and encamped
three miles from Newport News. Upon the resignation of Major Kilbourne, on
the 30th, Captain John L Curtin, of company A, was commissioned to succeed
him. It remained here, engaged in company, battalion, and brigade drill, until
the 4th of August, when it was assigned to the First Brigade,t First Division,
Ninth Army Corps. It reached Acquia Creek on the 5th, and on the following
day nine companies moved to Brooks' Station, on the Richmond and Potomac
railroad, and remained until the 29th. The second battle of Bull Run was now
in progress. Major Curtin, with three hundred men, marched to Potomac
Creek, and burned the railroad bridge. On the 4th of September the bridge
and buildings at Brooks' Station were burned, and the troops took cars for
Acquia Creek. Here the landing, ware-houses, cars, locomotives, and commissary stores were destroyed on the 6th, and the regiment moved by water to
Washington. On the 9th, in light marching order, it proceeded to Brookville,:fom thence to Frederick City on the 12th, and to Middletown on the 13th.
The army of GeneralLee, flushed with its successes, was now at South Mountain. General Burnside made immediate preparations to meet him. Early in
* EXTRACT FROM THE OFFICIAt REPORT OF GENERAL HI. G. WRIGHT.-The troops of
the entire column left the field in the most perfect order, the Forty-fifth Pennsylvania Regiment bringing up and covering the rear, as-far as our front line of pickets, where it was halted
and remained in position till all prospect of an attack, on the part of the enemy, had passed
away.-Moore's Rebellion Record, TVo. 5, page 211, Does.
t Organization of the First.Brigade, Colonel Thomas Welsh, First Division, Brigadier General O. B. Wilcox, Ninth Army Corps, Major General A. E. Burnside. Forty-fifth Regiment
Pennsylvania Volunteers, Major John I. Curtin; Forty-sixth Regiment New York Volunteers,
Colonel Joseph Gerhardt; One Hundredth Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers, Lieutenant
Colonel David A. Leckey; Thirty-sixth Regiment Massachusetts Volunteers, Colonel Henry
Bowman.